Central Ref. & not being trained on a 53'

Ok FREE or NOT FREE not too many would be jumping at the chance to allow it to happen. But then some sell the tires and fuel from their company trucks so it could .

 

Oh lawdy, Ill remind myself of your wise words next time I have to bump a city street dock with a 53" and the tractor parked at 90 degrees to trailer so im not blocking the entire street LOL. Ill thank my lucky starts I didnt have to do that with a 28' LMAOOOOOOOOO Ill remind myself as all the PO'd 4 wheelers are blowing their horns at me.

No, dude, just no LOL

 

IMO, pay for the "refresher". It will be less stressful than trying to pass a pre-employment road test with yard maneuvers driving a 53' for the first time. Going from a 48' to a 53' is doable if you are good, but going from a shorty to a 53' without 2 days min of training is like a hail-Mary pass...it may work sometimes, but will fail more often than not.
Doing the refresh might be good if it is a good company, because you will relearn the maneuvers the way they like them done, giving you a leg-up.
IMO, if you think it is a quality company, do it...spend the $$.
But a few places might be willing to take you without additional training...but those places might be more desperate for drivers...and there is usually a reason.

 

uh......MANY SCHOOLS TRAIN ON SHORT TRAILERS.....!!!

i ought to know.......I AM AN INSTRUCTOR....

do you realistically believe its a GOOD idea to have an inexperienced person that DOES NOT KNOW how to drive, make turns with such long trailers....??

28', 32', 40', 45', 48' trailers for students AT NEARLY EVERY SCHOOL......IS THE NORM.......!!!

go ahead, ask for your money back.....then go to some other occupational school.......

 

Never saw them short trailers used,

our schools use 48' tankers and dry boxes..............

and if you can handle a 48, 53 isn't THAT different !!!!

Just take their course........

 

48 to 53? Not for a pro it isn't. Whatever you got I can pull it.

 

I trained ON THE ROAD with Prime, and started out with the standard 53'. A couple years down the road, I went to work for a company that only had 48'. When he upgraded to 53s, he was concerned we would all have trouble moving to 53' trailers! Haha. Piece of cake.

I would be pounding the door at that school that took all that money for pup training, show them what Central said (and probably most other companies would say) and demand they take a couple days to train me PROPERLY! Probably won't work, but worth a shot... probably better luck than pounding on some driver's door at a truck stop and asking if you can borrow his tractor/trailer for a few miles around with no training on the long trailer!

 

Central is a pretty decent company and I think you would be very happy driving for them. They treat you more family like and aren't a mega-carrier. I would jump on the chance to go to their training. They are going to show you a lot of other things that your school did not. For instance, reefer training. My wife and I drove for Central for quite a while and on many occasions they went above and beyond to help us out! This is one of the main reasons I recommend them, I have never had any other company do that. There are also a lot of other companies out there. My biggest suggestion would be that you steer clear of the mega-carriers, ie: Swift, Werner, England, etc.... This will make your chances of success much greater. You need to put forth a lot more effort though to find a good carrier. This is a big reason why most newbies go there is because they make it easy for them and will just sign you up at the drop of a hat! This is just my two cents worth! Good luck to you!

 

Ranger,

These are students!